Pages

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Fred Pape on the front porch of the Nokoni cabin, Grand Lake, Colorado, September 1954

Recently I scanned a number of color slides belonging to my parents. These two are from 59 years ago - their honeymoon in Colorado.

After they married in Houston, Texas, on September 11, 1954, they drove to Austin, and spent the night there. They ate at Jaime's Spanish Village. They spent one night on the road in Pecos in west Texas, and got to Denver the day after that, where they spent a couple nights. Then they drove through Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, and stopped in Grand Lake on the west side of the park. They stayed at a cabin on the lake there for a number of days. The photo above is of my father, Frederick Henry Pape, on the front porch of the cabin. More about this place in a future post.

My mom also remembers visiting Grand Junction, Aspen (a place she really wanted to see), a town in Colorado "with a prison" (probably Cañon City), and Colorado Springs. Mom says the photo of her below was taken on a stream somewhere near Aspen. They drove home along the eastern part of New Mexico, stopping to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Their road trip honeymoon took about two weeks in all.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

My maternal grandfather, Charles Guokas Jr. (1903-1967, pictured at left in front
of the Coliseum), operated parking lots for the City of Houston around
the Coliseum and Music Hall, as well as nearby City Hall, and at Hobby
Airport, from at least the 1940s until his death in 1967. In the 1960s, he also operated a parking lot at Main and Clay in downtown Houston on property owned by the University of Texas system.

He originally got the concessions because of his political connections, but eventually, he had to bid for the rights to operate the parking lots.

I can remember when he came to visit, he would take all the change out of his pockets and give it to me and my four siblings, his only grandchildren, to divvy up. He and my grandmother (they were divorced in 1944) also set aside money for our college educations. My mother says he used to pay her to write letters to find the owners of cars left on the lots that did not pay the parking fees, a small amount of money, yet it helped with family expenses.

My mother is pictured in front of the Coliseum below. She looks to be in high school (which was nearby) or perhaps college, which would date the picture to the 1940s. I believe the photo of my grandfather above was taken at the same time.

Geraldine Margaret Guokas in front of the Sam Houston Coliseum and Music Hall, 1940s

Monday, September 23, 2013

At left is a photo of him, probably from 1904, with his mother, Elizabeth (Elžbieta Benevičiūtė) Banevich Guokas (1875-1929).

The photograph was taken by Anderson & Co., who had a studio at the time at 403 and 1/2 Main Street in Houston. You can't see it at the bottom of the scan of the photograph, but I cropped that area out and adjusted the color and contrast to make it visible.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

This house, originally at 1717 Shearn in Houston, Texas, was the one where my mother, Geraldine Guokas Pape, spent her early years.

The house was originally owned by her grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas Sr. (1863-1939), starting in 1908-09. That is the year the family is first listed in the Houston city directory at this address. Previously, from 1899 through 1907, the family was listed as living at 1314 Railroad.

I believe this photograph was taken shortly after the family moved into the house. In the enlargement below, you can clearly see 1717 above the door in two places. My great-grandmother Elizabeth (Elžbieta) Banevich (Benevičiūtė) Guokas (1875-1929) is standing in the doorway.

The three children are my grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967), and his younger sisters Eva (1907-1979) and Agnes "Aggie" Verna (1905-1974).

There's a tree that's been planted just in front, visible between the two little girls.

On the 1930 Census, my great-grandfather was still living in this house, along with his youngest son Roy Lee Guokas (1917-1959), my grandfather, my grandmother Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997), and my one-year-old mother and her older brother, Charles Guokas III (1927-1999).

My mother's family lived in this house until June 1933, when they moved to Austin when my grandfather was appointed secretary to Governor Miriam Amanda Ferguson. My great-grandfather continued to live in the house until his death in April, 1939. The house was left to Roy who lived there until at least 1942.

I drove by this address in April 2012, only to discover the house had been torn down, apparently (according to Google Maps) by July 2011. The property (Lot 12, Block 299, Baker Addition) and the adjacent lot have recently been subdivided into single-family townhome lots for construction of three-story (plus rooftop terrace), three-bedroom, 3.5 bath homes selling for about $395,000.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The young man not in a baseball uniform kneeling at left in the photo at left is my maternal grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas Jr. (1903-1967). His older cousin Adam Lawrence Guokas (1901-1966), played baseball for a local team, but I'm not sure if he is in this photo. Not until I scanned and enlarged it did I notice the young man on the ground, peering between the legs of the other team members!

My grandfather looks to be around 20 at most in this photo, so I believe it was taken in the early 1920s.

Based on the letters on the jerseys, I think the team is sponsored by Interurban Buffet. Sure enough, there was such an institution in Houston, at least from 1921 through 1931, according to these ads and news stories I found.

The Interurban Buffet was located at 1001 Texas Avenue at Main Street in downtown Houston.

This was the location of the Binz & Settegast Building, Houston's first "skyscraper," a six-story building across the street from the Rice Hotel. It was constructed in 1898. Today, it doesn't look anything like the picture below and in the ad linked to above, as it was completely rebuilt in 1982.

[*ETA on March 19, 2015: I found a reference to an article in the March 23, 1920, Houston Post, on page 13, about a game the team played: "BUFFET BEATS SUNSET. The Interurban Buffet team defeated the Sunset Heights team on the Sunset diamond Sunday by the score of 17 to 0. The batting of the Buffet team was the feature of the game....The Buffet team is open for games with any team in Texas. For games, address B. Anderson, 2005 Hickory."]

Friday, September 13, 2013

My aunt, Sister Jean Marie (born Jo Ann) Guokas, turned 83 yesterday, September
12. This "bathing beauties" photo is one of my favorite pictures of her and her older sister, my
mother, Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, taken sometime in the early
1930s, probably in Houston, Texas.

From that day [of his disappearance] to this, there has never been a clue to his whereabouts, nor has any adequate explanation ever been offered as to the cause of his disappearance. Not the slightest suspicion of anything discreditable was ever attached to him, for he was a man of sterling character and correct habits. His domestic relations were of the happiest. Various individuals have since claimed to see Mr. Hanchette, but their testimony when sifted down has been found to be frivolous. The theory now most generally accepted is that he was killed by thugs and his body destroyed.

However, privately Willard thought differently. According to Suffering in the Land of Sunshine: A Los Angeles Illness Narrative by Emily Abel
(Rutgers University Press, 2006), in a July 12, 1891, letter to his father, Willard said (page 49):

Hanchette had been "in secret a spend thrift and a fool about money matters." Although not "exactly dishonest," he conducted his affairs in a "dishonorable" way. "When he went away things were in a hopeless snarl with him and he had not the courage to come back and face them."

Minutes of the [chamber of commerce] directors' meetings taken by Hanchette were brief and careless; financial records were snarled; the bank account was overdrawn by $500; membership dues had not been collected; and ... two chamber employees ... had been spoiled hopelessly by the carefree attitude of the inefficient administrator. Capping the problems was a debt amounting to approximately $2300.

Two theories concernlng the fate of Hanchette have had, and still have, adherents. The first is that he was murdered in Chicago for the purpose of robbery and his body sunk in the lake; the second, that the missing man carefully disguised himself, and, having dropped his identity and destroyed all traces by which he might be followed up, went to South America, foot loose and free, to recommence existence again
under an assumed name. This theory is not an improbable one, as Hanchette's day dreams invariably took that form, and he would harp upon that sole subject with his intimates at any time.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

On our latest visit to Fredericksburg, Texas, to visit my parents for Labor Day weekend, we stayed at a different place than where we usually stay. It was located on the south side of Main Street, so on my morning walk, I had an opportunity to explore some of the old neighborhoods there.

One historic site I've wanted to see for some time is the Pape Log Cabin (no relation that I know of), pictured above. Here's what the historical marker (pictured at left) says:

"One of the oldest structures in Fredericksburg, built by communal
effort for the family of Friedrich Pape (1813-94). Pape, his wife
Katherine, and a daughter arrived in Galveston in Nov. 1845 from
Germany. Three Pape children died on the trip. The family was among
the first forty to settle in Fredericksburg, and soon after arriving
in May 1846, this cabin was erected to shelter the ailing Mrs. Pape. The post oak logs were cut nearby, and the first roof was probably
thatched grass."

Catherine (Catharina, 1810-1884) recovered, and Friedrich was one of the settlers who signed the petition to form Gillespie County in December 1847. The family can be found in Gillespie County on the next four censuses. In 1850, Friedrich is listed as a farmer in the Zodiac Mills and Live Oak Creek settlement, and the family has grown to include son Louis (born 1848) and daughter Matilda (born 1850).

By
1860, Friedrich (now called Fritz), is a miller and farmer, and twin daughters,
Augusta and Sophia, were born in 1855.Also
in 1855, Dorethea married Carl Hilmar Guenther
(1826–1902), founder of San Antonio’s Pioneer Flour Mills.

By 1870, Fred and Catherine have moved into town and he is a merchant. Only the twins are left at home. In 1880, Fritz is listed on San Saba Street (today's Main Street) in a furniture store, and he and Catherine are empty-nesters.

Sometime between 1880 and 1884, the family (including the childrens' spouses) left Fredericksburg and wound up in San Antonio, where they are all buried (mostly in City Cemetery #1).

The Pape Log Cabin is located in the back yard of this house on W. Creek Street, which also has a historical marker:

The marker reads:

"Built in 1851 by the Rev. Gottlieb Burchard Dangers (1811-69), soon
after his purchase of this town lot from Friedrich Pape. Dangers, who
had emigrated from Germany in 1849, was the second Protestant minister
in Fredericksburg. The two rooms in the rear and the cellar were added
by Dangers about 1857. The house was constructed in the pioneer German
style, with some walls of fachwerk (half-timbered) construction."

This might be my last post about Fredericksburg for a while. This last visit was to help my parents prepare for an upcoming move to Austin, where three of my siblings live. They will be leaving their custom-built home in Fredericksburg after almost exactly 20 years there.

Earl E. Hanchette was born in 1879 in California, the second son of Henry Jay Hanchette and his wife Emma Griffith. According to a longer article on page 5 of the Los Angeles Herald that same date, he met the former Georgia Elliott the previous summer in Los Angeles. They eloped to San Francisco and married there in late August, 1898. The 18-year-old Georgia had given birth just four weeks before she was murdered. Hanchette said he did it because Georgia's mother wanted her daughter and grandchild to move back to Denver with her, and Hanchette did not want them to go.

Earl Hanchette apparently used chloroform on his wife before shooting her - I have to wonder if he got that from his uncle, Dr. Edgar M. Griffith, who was practicing medicine in Los Angeles at that time. Hanchette shot himself in the stomach in a suicide attempt. He was described as a "dudish masher," and

"The young man was always wayward, and grief over his ways of living may have hastened the death of his mother, Mrs. Emma J. Hanchette, for many years a highly respected public school principal in this city, whose demise occurred only a few months ago. He sought no employment. Remittances from his grandmother in San Francisco to himself and from his mother-in-law to his wife were wasted upon himself."

He'd apparently also resorted to forgery.

While Hanchette lingered in the hospital, the Los Angeles coroner and an undertaker squabbled over poor Georgia's body prior to the inquest. Her body was shipped to Denver, and her child either sent there to live with its grandmother, or to Des Moines, Iowa, to live with its aunt, Georgia's sister, a Mrs. Meredith. I don't know (yet) where Georgia is buried or what ultimately happened to her child.